[salish]

[gj]

Can you not also see scuds in the bellies of fish that you do take?

[Odonata]

Jonathan, thats funny. Every year on the first couple of raft trips to clear, deep lakes I have minor bouts with vertigo. It is unnatural to be suspended so far over the ground! I am a good swimmer and it still gets my attention sometimes. I probably have some wuss gene that causes that

[salish]

[Jamin Smitchger]

1. I just went to a lake (pond) this past sunday and caught nine trout with my dad. The lake was about 250' by 250' and the trout were biting like crazy. All the trout were small and the largest was about 8.5 inches. This lake is located at about a thousand feet and has excellent habitat. Were the fish small because the lake was small, overpopulation, or what. Do bigger lakes produce bigger fish? This pond was populated by cutthroat, rainbow, and brook trout with cutthroat being an estimated 20%of the population, rainbow 35%, and brook trout about 45%. 2. I have heard that beaver ponds are often excellent places to catch fish, yet most of the beaver ponds I come across are fishless. Do beaver ponds have to be located on streams that already contain trout? I assume so. If so, how do you determine which trickles on the map have enough water to contain fish. I once found a beaver pond that had fish. I went back in midsummer and found that it was almost entirely dried up and only contained about a foot of water. Do you guys think that all of the fish died. Since beaver ponds tend to fade after a few years, How many fish would it be acceptable to take out of one.

[Brian Curtis]

You can generally tell if a lake is overpopulated by the condition of the fish. If they are skinny with large heads you know the lake is overpopulated. Catching three species in a lake like that means they are certainly naturally reproducing. Bigger lakes do not produce bigger fish. Most of the food in a lake grows in water that is 10' deep, or less. So you can have a big deep lake with a bottom that slopes straight down that will never grow large fish because the fish will be largely dependent on terrestrial insects for food. A small lake can have 100% of its area in production and often smaller lakes produce larger fish. Beaver ponds are often stocked so do not need to be in streams that contain fish. If a pond drains down in the summer the fish will survive if they have someplace they can go, like a stream. Otherwise they will die. I'm not sure what you mean by beaver ponds fading after a few years. Dams can occasionally blow out or be taken out by logging (my old favorite suffered this latter fate) but almost all the ponds I first fished 25 years ago are still there.

[Lead Dog]

On a weeks hike I might keep 2.

[aestivate]

[Brian Curtis]

[Backcountry Blake]

Over my past 20 years of fishing I have decided that all of the fun is in catching the fish, and I don't really find much joy in killing and eating all the fish that make a lake or stream worth going to. If you like eating fish that much, go to the store before your fishing trip and stuff yourself. Theres no point in keeping every fish you catch "just cuz." I've been to so many places that have been fished out pretty much beyond recovery. For example, last summer the Cedar River was opened for the first time in 10 years and I caught over 20 fish the first evening it was open. I then went back a week later and there was not a trout to be seen. I just think people need to chill out with keeping so many fish. Catch and release is more rewarding anyway.

[greg]

But Blake, that Cedar River fishery was mandatory C and R. Do you think people killed 'em anyway, hooking mortality, or what?

[Backcountry Blake]

I think there were a lot of people unaware of the regulations.

[greg]

BB, I don't buy it. It had been closed for more than 10 years. If they knew it was finally reopened, they must have known the regs. Either they killed the fish anyway, or the fish went back down into the lake, or got bite-shy, or something else happened. Not that I disagree with your perceptions on the value of catch and release. I support that 100 percent, and myself only kill hatchery fish these days, and almost none in high lakes. Just something else going on with the Cedar I think.

[Backcountry Blake]

It is entirely possible that the fish in the cedar just got shy from heavy fishing, but at the same time I did find several snagged lures and tripple hooks in bushes and rocks. If I remember correctly it was single barless hooks only. I think some people might have heard it was open and just went for it.

[Jamin Smitchger]

1. So what does it take for a population of trout to be naturally reproducing? How do you tell? Can small, high lakes have naturally reproducing populations or are they all pretty much artificial populations? 2. Here is an excerpt of my trip report to Dollar Lakes (above gold bar on US 2) which might apply to this topic. There are fish in the two largest of the North Star Pots, but since these lakes are only about 3/4 of an acre in size, I would reccomend that few if any fish be kept. The largest of the two pots is 10+ feet deep and has been pretty much fished out. I did not catch any out of this pot. I have heard rumors that these ponds have been stocked with fry, but I only kept one trout in order to preserve the fishery. I also fished in the two small pots about .20 miles E of point 5043. Both pots are located at about 4590 feet. The smallest of the two pots is only about 3-4 feet deep, but the largest is a beautiful green pool of water about 12 or more feet deep. Although this pond is only about 150 feet long and 120 feet wide, it could probably contain a small population of trout. Unfortunately, after I did not get any bites for an hour and I did not see any fish in the pot, I realized that it was fishless. Does anyone know whether the pot has even stocked in the past. I was really sad that it did not have any fish. Someone had written the letters EL with rocks at this pond so I know someone has been there before me and it is possible that the pond was probably just fished out. If so, it would be great if one of the trailblazers would stock it. What do you guys think about my observations.